The background art of the present invention will be described below.
In recent years, a demand has arisen for a smaller image forming apparatus with improved operability. In order to satisfy such a demand on the market, the applicant of the present invention has previously made effective inventions, and disclosed them in Japanese Patent Application No. 60-123060 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-279871; corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,548) and Japanese Patent Application No. 63-047637 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 01-222269; corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,803).
The present invention has been made by improving the previous inventions. According to the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus which realizes a further reduction in size and an improvement in operability.